A turbocompressor assembly is known which usually comprises a rotor, bearing sections including bearings and bearing gaps, a motor section having a motor with a stator and a motor gap and a cooling system for cooling the bearing section and the motor section or other related components of the assembly. Such cooling systems generally include at least one inlet valve for supplying a pressurized cooling fluid to the bearing section and the motor section through different fluid channels in each section.
Such a known turbocompressor assembly is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,469. The turbocompressor disclosed in the document comprises a radial turbocompressor functioning as a cooling system, a rotor, an electric motor, and a bearing section comprising a plurality of electromagnetic radial bearings. The turbocompressor includes one inlet and outlet fluid channel for connecting the turbocompressor in a fluid-conducting manner. The turbocompressor further includes inlet valves for supplying the cooling fluid to the radial and axial bearings and then to the electric motor section. This embodiment has the disadvantage that it requires more recycling flows of the cooling fluid to obtain the desired cooling effect.
Generally, the flow of cooling fluid through the motor gap is determined by the required cooling flow through the bearing gaps. However, in such a turbocompressor assembly, the parameters such as pressure, temperature, etc at the cooling gaps in the bearing section may be different to the corresponding parameters of the motor gap. This increases the flow of the cooling fluid through the motor section more than required, thereby increasing the recycling flows. These higher recycling flows in turn lower the performance of the compressor of the turbocompressor assembly.